The last few seasons have been rough ones for the California cherry industry. After averaging 8.1m cartons in 2012 and 2013, production dropped over the following three seasons by nearly half, to an average of 4.6m cartons.
Much of the problem can be attributed to one of the worst droughts in state history. Last year, the problem was rain, as one storm after another rolled in during April and May, effectively ruining much of the crop.
Only the availability of high-tech grading and sorting systems utilising laser optics allowed packhouses to produce any kind of reasonable volume last season.
“The industry probably had around an 8m-carton crop on its hands but the weather just killed us,” said Mark Calder of Primavera Marketing. “We must have had ten rain events during the harvest last year.”
California cherry growers are due for some better luck and if the law of averages comes into play, this year could be when the industry has some quality fruit to offer as well as volume.
“As it stands now, the fruit looks pretty good,” Dave Martin of Stemilt Growers said in late March. “I’d call this a good crop [of cherries] but not a huge one.”
Martin felt it was still too early to speculate on what kind of volume might be packed this year because it was all dependent on the weather remaining relatively dry.
With California just finishing one of its wettest winters in history, few in the industry are willing to bet on what could yet happen this spring. Expectations are that the first fruit will be picked sometime during the last week in April, with volume steadily increasing into May.
“After that, it’s off to the races. We’ll go from pallet quantities the first week of May to 20,000 cartons per day by the week of 8 May and run heavy through about the 26th of the month. At that point, volume looks like it will drop off very quickly,” Martin said.
In Martin's view, there’s a strong possibility of a cherry supply gap between the end of the California deal and the beginning of the Pacific Northwest season, which may not commence until 8 June.
If the weather gods are kind this spring, the California Cherry Board (CCB) intends to promote its fruit across several Asian markets.
“We will have programmes in China, Japan and South Korea this season,” said export programme manager Sarah Gelpi Hooker.
These activities will include in-store promotions and samplings at various retail chains. In China, California cherries will also be promoted on two e-commerce platforms, while in Korea, California cherries are scheduled to be featured on home shopping networks.
“In Japan, CCB will focus primarily on the in-store promotions but some retailers may feature point-of-sale materials and other enhancements regarding California cherry nutrition,” said Hooker. “While it is too early to say exactly when these promotions will run, we are targeting mid-May since this is expected to be the height of the season.'
